Success is sweet for village store

A former village post office is tasting success as an old-fashioned sweet shop.

Brant Broughton post office closed in April, but has now become a florists and sweet shop. A post office outreach service runs on Wednesdays.

Flowers At The Forge, on Main Street, Brant Broughton, is run by Mrs Sonia Raymond (35) and the former village postmistress, Mrs Pam Dunning (59). They also sell jewellery, cards, cakes and pottery.

Mrs Dunning said she was pleased to have found a use for The Forge.

She said: “It’s a lovely old building which has been in my family since the late 1600s.

“I honestly don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t gone into business with Sonia because although I always wanted to run an old-fashioned sweet shop I don’t think I could have made it work on its own.”

Mrs Dunning said they were focusing on stocking old-fashioned sweets.

She said: “We are not stocking many modern sweets unless we are specifically asked for them.

“At the moment the best sellers include toffee and lemon bonbons, rhubarb and custard and pear drops.

“Boiled sweets seem to be very popular and sherbet is also particularly popular with the children.”

She said: “We get a lot of older people come in and say they haven’t seen a certain sweet for years and they buy some.”

Mrs Raymond, of Sleaford Road, Brant Broughton, said the business had received a lot of support from people in the village.

She said: “At the beginning a lot came in because they were curious about what was going on, but people are coming back now so we must be doing something right.

“People really appreciate that we have the outreach service from here and with rising petrol costs I think village shops are beginning to come in to fashion again.”